The St. Louis Brown Stockings were a professional baseball club based in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1875 to 1877, which competed on the cusps of the existences of two all-professional leagues—the National Association (NA) and the National League (NL). The team is the forerunner of, but not directly connected with, the current St. Louis Cardinals Major League Baseball team. After the conclusion of the 1877 season, a game-fixing scandal involving two players the Brown Stockings had acquired led the team to resign its membership in the NL. The club then declared bankruptcy and folded.
William Arthur "Candy" Cummings was an American professional baseball player. He played as a pitcher in the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, and National League. Cummings is widely credited with inventing the curveball. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.
The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP), often known simply as the National Association (NA), was the first fully-professional sports league in baseball. The NA was founded in 1871 and continued through the 1875 season. It succeeded and incorporated several professional clubs from the previous National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) of 1857–1870, sometimes called "the amateur Association". In turn, several NA clubs created the succeeding National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, which joined with the American League of Professional Base Ball Clubs to form Major League Baseball (MLB) in 1903.
Lipman Emanuel "Lip" Pike the "Iron Batter", was an American star of 19th-century baseball in the United States. His brother, Israel Pike, played briefly for the Hartford Dark Blues during the 1877 season.
The Mutual Base Ball Club of New York was a leading American baseball club almost throughout its 20-year history. It was established during 1857, the year of the first baseball convention, just too late to be a founding member of the National Association of Base Ball Players. It was a charter member of both the first professional league in 1871 and the National League in 1876.
Morgan Gardner Bulkeley was an American politician, businessman, and sports executive. A Republican, he served in the American Civil War, and became a Hartford bank president before becoming the third president of the Aetna Life Insurance Company, a post he held for 43 years. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in recognition of his role as the first president of the National League. Bulkeley served on the Hartford City Council and was a four-term mayor of Hartford. He later served as the 54th Governor of Connecticut for two terms and as a United States Senator.
The Athletic Base Ball Club of Philadelphia was a prominent National Association, and later National League, professional baseball team that played in the second half of the 19th century.
Robert Vavasour Ferguson was an American infielder, league official, manager and umpire in the early days of baseball, playing both before and after baseball became a professional sport. In addition to playing and managing, he served as president of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players from 1872 through 1875, the sport's first entirely professional league. His character and unquestioned honesty were highly regarded during a period in baseball history where the game's reputation was badly damaged by gamblers and rowdy behavior by players and fans. However, his bad temper and stubbornness were traits that created trouble for him at times during his career, and caused him to be disliked by many. His nickname, "Death to Flying Things", was derived from his greatness as a defensive player.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1881 throughout the world.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1877 throughout the world.
John Joseph Burdock, nicknamed "Black Jack", was an American second baseman in Major League Baseball who played for several teams over a 20-year playing career. Burdock was known as a skilled fielder, and he recorded the first known out on a major-league hidden ball trick. He was player-manager for the 1883 Boston Beaneaters when they won a league pennant.
The Middletown Mansfields were an early baseball team in Middletown, Connecticut that existed from 1866 to 1872.
Thomas Henry Bond was a Major League Baseball player who was a star pitcher and a right fielder a total of ten seasons. A native of Granard, Ireland, he is the first man born in Ireland to play Major League Baseball. Bond was also the last survivor of the National League's first season (1876).
Robert Edward Addy, nicknamed "The Magnet", was a Canadian right fielder and second baseman in Major League Baseball, whose professional career spanned from 1871 in the National Association to 1877 in the National League. He is credited as the first player to introduce the slide in an organized game, and later attempted to create a game of baseball that would have been played on ice. He is also credited as the first person born in Canada to appear in a major league game.
Winfield Scott Hastings was a Major League Baseball player and manager in the late 19th century. Primarily a catcher and outfielder, Hastings also appeared as a first baseman, second baseman, and shortstop over the course of his career.
Thomas Jefferson York was a professional baseball left fielder. Over the course of York's 15-season career as a professional, which spanned the National Association and Major League Baseball, he racked up 1095 hits in 4005 at bats, for a .273 batting average. Twice, during his playing time with the Providence Grays, he was also manager including the entire first season of the team's existence in 1878.
Jeremiah F. "Jerry" Dorgan was an American professional baseball player from 1879 to 1887. He played four seasons of Major League Baseball as a right fielder and catcher for five major league clubs. He appeared in 131 major league games and compiled a .282 batting average with 22 doubles, four triples, no home runs and 49 RBIs.
In their second season in the National Association, the 1875 Hartford Dark Blues finished in third place. They were managed by starting third baseman Bob "Death to Flying Things" Ferguson.
The Hartford Senators were a minor league baseball team based in Hartford, Connecticut. They operated in the Connecticut League from 1902–1912, the Eastern Association from 1913–1914, the Eastern League from 1916–1932 and the Northeastern League in 1934. For the 1932 season they were affiliated with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
The Hartford Dark Blues were a Major League Baseball club in the 1870s, based in Hartford, Connecticut for three seasons and in Brooklyn, New York for one. Hartford was a member of the National Association (NA), 1874–1875 and a founding member of the National League (NL) in 1876, when it played home games at the Hartford Ball Club Grounds. During 1877 the team played home games at the Union Grounds in Brooklyn and was sometimes called the Brooklyn Hartfords.
